IlsonDerby

Who said Lampard was just Tim Sherwood with a levels? 

My favourite season in the last 20(?) years is the George burley season. 
 

Powerful attacking football with a bunch of foreign gems that would have set us up for the next 5 seasons of challenging had we not had those horrible b******* selling them for peanuts. 

11 hours ago, Jimbo Ram said:

Not sure spending close to a million on a keeper would be my priority 😊

Most important position on the pitch? Any mistake they make means we’ve conceded. 

Nigel Clough showed on a number of occasions that he could set up a team to play beautiful football. Easily rivalling that of Mac1. 
 

Just a shame he was always quick to put the brakes on to drag us to 50 points - but with a bottom 6 budget he did brilliantly when you consider what he inherited. 

A brilliant achievement.

I always think a good test for this is ‘would you sign a player from Gateshead who has just had his end to the season with one eye on getting him in the first team or would you be signing them to send them out on a loan at a top league 2/ league 1 club to gain experience?’ 
 

Don’t want to balls up his development by throwing him in too early. I guess pre season will give us a better idea. 

44 minutes ago, Rample said:

What is the contract situation of our better youths - Bardell, Cox, Moloney, Radcliffe, Richards etc. 

We're exactly as you'd think - very lopsided.Great at right wing back, but pretty sparse throughout the spine. 

Some sort of line up using contracted players. :-

Vickers

Nyambe Nelson Cashin 

Rooney

Ward, Fornah, Radcliffe, Wilson

Mendez-Laing

Collins

Bench

Evans, Bradley, Elder, Robinson, Fapetu, Weston, Blackett-Taylor, Brown, Washington.

Bardell just nudged off the bench for balance 

Robinson and Radcliffe out of contract this summer. As is Collins. 

4 hours ago, Ghost of Clough said:

Rooney comes in for Fapetu. I would also put DBrown in the 11 instead of Washington.

Bradley and Wilson are the only other 1st team players contracted. Good arguments could be made to include them in the 11.

I’m not sure D Brown is ready for championship yet. Lads put a few good performances together against some cloggers in non league. Washington has spent half his career up in the champs. He might not be inspiring but I’d bet money he’d be more effective right now than Brown. Brown obviously has a higher ceiling though. 

Leave the ‘think we’ll get Ebou’ or ‘reckon Barkhuizen will extend’ suggestions for the transfers and retained list thread. This is just if the season started today, what would your team be? 
 

Obviously it’ll change as we announce new contracts and signings but interesting to see just how far ‘off it’ we are currently and whether the transfers address what we think are our weak links. 
 

I’ll start - sticking with Paul Hoddle Warnes 3 at the back. 
 

                   Vickers 

       Nyambe Nelson Cash 

Ward   Fornah   Fapetu    Elder 

       NML Washington CBT 

Think it’s clear that we need to be bulk buying central midfielders and forwards 😂

10 hours ago, RYRAM said:

Yes please 🙏 

He’s scored 3 goals in the last 25 matches hasn’t he? His numbers look ace because he hit 9 in 9 at the start of the season. 
 

He’s league one at best. 

16 hours ago, Jram said:

Would John-Jules resign do you think? Absolutely class player if he can stay fit 

He’d be our best player based on technical ability if we kept him fit. 
 

He’s out of contract isn’t he? Offer to put him through pre season to get him ‘Warne fit’ and if his body is robust enough to cope with that then offer him a reasonable wage (for us) with incentives for being available for selection added in to bring it in line with others at the club. 

17 hours ago, Anag Ram said:

I haven’t seen anything from Elder to suggest he’s a Championship player. Looks a bang average squad player to me.

He has looked good whenever he’s been on the pitch. He just needs a run without injuries. 
 

People are overlooking just how challenging it is to be in and out of a team and yet whenever he came on he didn’t look out of place. 
 

I think he played one shakey back pass in an earlier game and other than that he was absolutely solid. 
 

I can’t understand the criticism. I think he’s an upgrade on Fozzy as a LB/LWB. I think they’re similar players but I think Elder is technically better on the ball. 
 

If Warne goes 352 next season I wouldn’t have too many complaints if it looked like this on game one: 

        Nyambe Nelson Cash 

Ward.                                  Elder 

Think Nyambes pace means you could worry less about Ward being the worse defender out of him and Wilson. 
 

Id want us to have 4 solid wing backs if we’re playing them and I’d want us to do what Mac1 used to do with his wingers. First pair of wingers 60-65 mins then swap them for fresh. 

Always bugged me that some people couldn’t see what he brought to the side because the goals and assists numbers weren’t the same as others. 
It was clear watching football matches that he was our most impressive midfielder and had been for some time. He just needed someone next to him to complement him and although they both played important roles at points this season I don’t think Hourihane or Smith were that complement. 

1 hour ago, Topram said:

Can’t see Warne liking someone with attitude problems 

Took on NML after he was sacked

1 hour ago, DavesaRam said:

Someone I have been impressed by is James Trafford, the young lad playing in goal for Burnley, although he didn’t play on Saturday. Given the amount of pressure the Burnley defence has been under, ge has done exceptionally well whenever I have seen him. 

He cost them about £20m in the summer??? Is he a genuine suggestion?

Matlock again for me Jeff. Brilliant day out. 
 

Apologies again for anyone on the train that was stopped on the way back until the driver found out who had pressed the emergency stop button. My dad had fell asleep standing up and had lent on it. 

12 hours ago, Ambitious said:

Not being negative, but my advice would be not to put too many eggs in the free agency basket.

It really surprises me that more footballers aren’t more dedicated to seeing their contracts out and going on frees. Bird would’ve have a better choice than Bristol City had he just seen it out, for sure, probably earning a lot more than he’s signed up for too.  

It’s risk v reward isn’t it? 
Do you sign this improved and guaranteed contract which will limit your possible destinations when you move or do you see your contract out hoping to get a better deal at a bigger club? The risk being that one instance of your studs sticking in the grass when you twist and your ligaments are knackered and you’re out for 8-10 months. 

21 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

Maybe he should state that then rather than telling other posters that he is correcting their inaccuracies?

When he is armed with everyone's accounts from this year he can state with confidence that we had the highest wage bill, until that point it is guesswork and condescending to other posters accusing of them of posting falsehoods.

Perhaps but I think it’s hardly condescending to think you don’t need to know all 24 clubs wage bills to have an idea of where we’d be when we have last years wages as a starting point. 
 

I think people flying the ‘we can’t possibly know until the financial reports come out’ are those that are having people on a bit 😂

8 hours ago, G STAR RAM said:

No you're not.

You have zero evidence to back up your wage bill claim. 

If you do please post it up and I will gladly apologise.

I think based on the wage bill from last season and the incoming players in the summer (where I can’t see anything other than the wage bill increasing) it’s not a massive jump to assume it’s top 1 or 2. It might not be a known fact but to suggest it isn’t likely is at odds with common sense. 

6 hours ago, mike93rh said:

And I'd still release him

Why? 
 

He is a good player. Injuries meant he never got a clear run at it but I never saw anything to suggest he wasn’t up to it. He had one shakey moment in one of the earlier matches but since then every sub appearance he was solid. It was only the excellent form of Sibley keeping him out by the end. 
 

I certainly think the back 5 is the area we need to mess with least. The 6 in front need some real reinforcements.

On 29/04/2024 at 09:02, angieram said:

Quiet lad, a bit apart from the celebrations, great post.

https://twitter.com/TyreseFornah/status/1784296850993934747?s=19

Maybe he's going to come into his own next season?

On 29/04/2024 at 09:10, Srg said:

I hope so. I feel like I've seen enough to see there's something there with him. Pre-season will be massive for him.

I think so. I think as long as it’s recognised he isn’t an Adams type player. He’d be someone who’d be elevated by having Adams next to him because he takes a few more risks but I liked what he had to offer. 
 

Just felt like that one mistake that led to a goal was him done in terms of first 11. 

I wonder why they are travelling to different countries? 
 

All clubs have wyscout or similar don’t they which allows you to watch any game and focus on any particular player? 
 

I wonder if it’s to actually speak to targets as a decision won’t be made based on 1 performance (unless we’ve gone backwards in terms of recruitment again) 

On 26/04/2024 at 09:20, Dimmu said:

I'm a semi-professional in betting and I cringe when I hear this kind of stuff. Two fundamental rules:

1) Betting shouldn't be emotionally loaded.

2) You only bet when the odds are higher than they should be. 

Seems like your bet would be against both of these rules.

 

I think when offered odds of 100/1 for a club who in very recent history have messed up against a poor side when only needing a point is higher than it should be hence skybet offering 66/1 at the same time. 
 

I also think betting can have a number of different functions including the following: 
1) trying to beat the bookies when you notice the odds don’t seem right for something 

2) hoping a silly bet comes in off a small stake (I won £1500 off a £1 bet 10 years ago). 

3) going against what you want to happen if the odds are good to soften the blow. 
 

I’d have been so miserable had derby messed it up absolutely inconsolable for a while.
I would however have had my play off tickets, next years season ticket and my summer holiday paid off for me.

It wouldn’t have made me happy - I’d still rather have the experience we had on Saturday because money can’t buy those feelings but I certainly can’t think of a downside to putting the bet on unless you couldn’t afford to lose the £25 stake. In which case you’ve broken the biggest rule in gambling. Don’t bet what you can’t afford to lose. 

9 hours ago, RoyMac5 said:

Loads of cash was £2.7m and £4.3m? 

The excellent young coach is the key.

They lost a huge amount didn’t they? They had good players from where they’d backed previous managers who’d failed. But yeah he’s an exceptional young talented manager with a future at the top. Just worth remembering that they’ll have lost another fortune this season before the premier league promotion money comes in. A risk that’s paid off for them. 

I think that he’s effective at improving technically gifted players by giving them the physical attributes that match their technical gifts making them more productive.  
 

I don’t think he’d be any good at taking a rough diamond and turning them into something special. 

On 24/04/2024 at 18:55, Day said:

I hope they walk away with nothing but a large legal expenses bill to pay.

Telling me they've looked at the Premier League games and said, if Sala had played we would have scored there and won the game.

This is even worse than the xG stat.

Without looking, I'm guessing the Cardiff fans are embarrassed and ashamed by this, unbelievable stuff by another wrong's in the game.

I work with a Cardiff fan and I shared similar opinions about this whole ordeal. He didn’t try and defend what they were doing as he thinks it’s crass but he did point to the fact (according to him) that they’d booked him a seat on a commercial flight the next day to come over but an agent used by his French team got this tragic flight arranged which ultimately led to his passing.

They also went down by 2 points so the idea that with a £15m striker for half the season they’d have got more than 2 points isn’t cloud cuckoo land. 
 

It’s really crass and it makes me uncomfortable but if this same situation had happened with nobody losing their life I think there’s maybe be a bit more sympathy.